THE Birmingham Mail has launched 34 new community sections on its website, bringing you news and pictures from your area.

Your Communities is the latest initiative to be launched on www.Birminghammail.net and covers Birmingham, Solihull and parts of Staffordshire.

Each community website features the latest news, community events and a gallery of nostalgic pictures.

Visitors also have access to travel information for their area, information about local attractions and opening times and contact details for local MPs and councillors.

The Mail is also seeking to work with existing hyperlocal websites in the city. More than 25 have already agreed to join the initiative. Content from the Your Communities section will appear in print every week in the Mail’s Yours supplement.

Readers are also being asked to send in their stories and pictures through the website and can sign up to the Mail’s Flickr group.

ACOCKS GREEN

The careful reconstruction of a row of Victorian houses in Sherbourne Road is nearing completion, the Acocks Green Focus Group has reported.

Mightyfine Developments has spent two years rebuilding the houses with bricks reclaimed from the original dwellings to retain the historic appearance.

And the first phase of the 13 new properties is now reportedly up for sale with the remaining homes expected to be available by the end of the year.

A sneaky deal by Birmingham City Council has paved the way for a new pedestrian bridge over the stream in Woodlands Park, the Bournville Village blog has revealed.

It claims the authority allowed phone giants Vodafone and O2 to move their mast from Bournville College to an open space in Cob Lane, for up to 12 months, provided they pay £8,000 for the bridge.

Bournville ward councillor Nigel Dawkins said: “I am very pleased that we have managed to extract this large sum of money from the operator which will go directly on improving one of our local parks.”

DIGBETH

The next Digbeth Residents Association meeting will be held in the Nomad Room on the ground floor of Zellig in the Custard Factory.

Anyone who would like to ask a question during the meeting, which takes place at 6pm on Monday, August 8, is asked to contact the secretary Pam.

* A link to Pam’s email address, meeting agenda and minutes from the July forum, can be found at www.digbeth.org

EDGBASTON

Edgbaston became the arts capital of Birmingham when two Shakespeare plays were staged simultaneously last Thursday.

A version of King Lear was performed outdoors at the Botanical Gardens in Westbourne Road as The Crescent Youth Theatre staged A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Parker Street Community Allotment Garden on the Waterworks Estate.

The fight to save a youth centre in Rubery will be the focus of a Channel 4 documentary, the B31 Blog has revealed.

Bars For Change will follow the Save Our Youth Service campaign to protect the Youthworcs Centre as Bromsgrove District Council considers funding cuts which would threaten the facility’s future.

The campaign, which has so far involved demonstrations and a petition, has been picked up by 20-year-old political activist Jody McIntyre.

According to a Facebook page, Jody plans to use his contacts in the music industry to produce a short film challenging the establishment and featuring an array of grime and hip hop stars.

Jody campaigned alongside other users of the facility, many of whom are Waseley High School students, at a demonstration outside the centre last week filmed by the Channel 4 cameras to feature in the documentary.

Campaign organiser Yasmin Millward said: “The people of Rubery need to pull together to make the people against us see that it’s not just the young people that go to the centre that will be affected by the closure, but the whole community.

“We have already had over 1,000 signatures on our petition and most people seem to be on our side.

“The young people involved in this youth service are passionate about their service and dedicated to saving it.

“Our best hope is that the council agree to carry on funding our youth services in Rubery as it has been doing for many years so successfully.”